A groundbreaking new study at the University of Haifa has found for the first time that emotions are not only the product of the processing of information by the brain, but that they also directly influence processes of learning and memory in the brain. Dr. Shlomo Wagner of the Sagol Department of Neurobiology at the University of Haifa, who undertook the study, explains: "It turns out that different emotions cause the brain to work differently and on distinct frequencies."

The main goal of the new study, which was published this February in the science journal eLife, was to identify the electrical activity that takes place in the brain during the formation of social memory. During the course of their work, the researchers -- Dr. Wagner and Ph.D. Alex Tendler -- discovered the scientific explanation behind the saying "you never get a second chance to make a first impression." More importantly, they came to understand the connection between emotions and cognitive processes such as learning and memory.

In the first part of the study the researchers examined the electrical activity in the brains of rats during social behavior. They discovered strong rhythmical activity reflecting a state of excitement in the animal. To their surprise, this activity was particularly strong and synchronous between areas of the brain associated with social memory during the first encounter between two previously unfamiliar rats. This rhythmical brain activity declined in strength and in the level of coordination between different brain areas as the encounter between the two rats was repeated.

"In other words, during the first encounter between the two animals, the distinct brain areas worked intensively and at a high level of coordination. It's almost as though the brain was working under a specific communication protocol coordinating different areas and telling them precisely when to operate. As the two animals got to know each other, the rhythmical activity declined in strength and the coordination between the different parts of the network trailed off," Dr. Wagner noted.

The researchers compared the brain activity during this social behavior with the activity sparked by non-emotional stimuli, such as an encounter with an inanimate object. Although on the behavioral level the rats also showed a high level of interest in such stimuli, their brain patterns did not show the same exceptional level of coordinated rhythmical activity seen in the encounter with an unfamiliar rat. The researchers also found that once a true social encounter occurs, the brain continued to work at a high level of coordination for some time, even after the encounter had ended. In other words, the brain entered a state of social arousal.

"The findings clearly showed that the excitement of the social encounter with a stranger rat created the high level of synchronized rhythmic activity in the brain, and it was this factor that seems to facilitate the formation of social memory. In other words, we found a connection between the feeling of excitement, rhythmical activity in specific brain areas, and the cognitive process of memory formation. Once the rats were familiar with each other, they were much less excited, and accordingly the distinct areas of their brain worked in much less coordination," Dr. Wagner explained. "In essence, this finding explains why people tend to remember in particular their first encounter with a future friend or partner."

Having found the connection between social excitement and social memory, the researchers then sought to examine whether a different emotion would also influence the same network of brain areas in the same way. Conventional wisdom would suggest that this should be the case. Dr. Wagner explains that the usual approach did not see any connection between specific emotions and cognitive processes such as memory, so that the brain should have acted in a similar manner in the case of a different emotion. The researchers duly exposed the rats to a different emotion -- a negative one associated with exposure to a frightening stimulant. It emerged that the brain works differently in this instance. Once again, strong rhythmical activity and coordination between the different areas associated with social memory was seen. However, this took place on a different frequency and at a slower rhythmical pattern.

"It seems that when the emotion is social and positive, the brain tells the different areas to work according to one communication protocol. When a different emotion is involved, such a negative emotion of fear as in our experiment, the brain tells the same areas to use a different communication protocol. We will need to conduct additional studies, including studies on humans, in the future in order to understand the precise ramifications of each emotion on memory. But in broad terms," Dr. Wagner concludes, "the implication is clear. Different emotions cause the brain to work differently, including in terms of cognitive processes such as learning and memory."

Local inventors place their bets on biodegradable plastic, high-performing golf balls, next-gen yoga mats, and more.

By Emeralde Jensen-Roberts August 09, 2015

IT WAS A PHONE CALL from a friend three years ago that put Keith Hearon on the path to inventing a new type of plastic from unusual materials. The friend worked for a fast food company and was bothered by the amount of polystyrene in its waste stream. “He asked if I could come up with a way to recycle styrofoam,” says Hearon, now a postdoctoral fellow at MIT’s Langer Lab, which specializes in biotechnology and materials science.

Hearon, who was then a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering at Texas A&M, got intrigued. A Japanese study he found pointed to a possible solution in another item in the food waste stream: lemon peels. Conducted by the Sony Corp. in the late 1990s, the study showed a citrus-rind extract called D-limonene could dissolve styrofoam.

Hearon figured out that by combining D-limonene with a second chemical, he could create a new form of potentially biodegradable “citrus plastic.” What’s more, he theorized that adding styrofoam to the mix would dissolve the styrofoam and result in a new plastic that while not biodegradable could be many times stronger. Before he even began to experiment, he quickly filed a patent (pending today) to protect the technology.

Now in the development phase, Hearon believes the citrus plastic with styrofoam has vast potential for larger-scale applications, thanks to its strength. His work earned him a finalist spot on the 2014 Collegiate Inventors Competition, sponsored by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Through his new company, Poly6 Technologies, Hearon hopes to commercialize both the biodegradable plastic he calls Citrene and the stronger citrus plastic with styrofoam as alternatives to less environmentally conscious materials. His vision for their uses stretches far and wide, from “biomedical applications [to] green, solvent-free coatings. Some compositions make it really strong, so it could be used for engineering plastics,” he says.

PATENTING ACTIVITY PLAYS A BIG ROLE in the state’s reputation for innovation. In 2014, the Milken Institute ranked Massachusetts number one on its State Technology and Science Index. States rise to the top of the index for having a larger number of high-quality research facilities, churning out lots of science, technology, and engineering degrees, and supporting a sizable tech workforce. A state’s success in transforming high-tech assets into revenue and in prospering from entrepreneurship and venture capital are also factors the institute considers.

A lengthy, expensive process that offers no guaranteed profit, patenting is, of course, a risky venture. In 2014, 7,079 patents were issued statewide, or 4.5 percent of the national patent volume. According to a 2014 report from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, among all states, Massachusetts has the highest patent volume per capita and, at 70.8 percent, the highest five-year growth rate in patent output. The report also states that computer, communications, drug, and medical patents make up 76.6 percent of the Massachusetts filings, and for the fifth year in a row, the state led the country in analytical instrument and research method patents, producing 95 patents per million residents. That’s roughly 48 percent more output than runner-up California.

Recent patents granted in the Bay State protect all kinds of intellectual property. In September, a Chestnut Hill company developed a new yoga mat with a compressible first layer that fosters an “active grip” around hands and feet. That grip, the patent holders say, allows for more grounded poses and prevents slipping even when the yogi using the mat is sweaty.

Meanwhile in Fairhaven this spring, the Acushnet Co., with hundreds of golf-related patents to its name, was granted yet another for a new golf ball design with rubber-core technology that promises a longer flight distance. Also this spring, the Patent and Trademark Office bestowed its 2015 Patents for Humanity award on a team of Massachusetts mechanical engineers for the Leveraged Freedom Chair, a wheelchair equipped with bicycle tires and push levers to negotiate rugged terrain in developing countries, where paved roads and sidewalks may be scarce or nonexistent.

Dr. Harald Ott, a thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, got a patent in April for a bioartificial lung, the latest application of an organ regeneration technology he pioneered nearly a decade ago. “In 2006, I filed a patent on perfusion decellularization of organs and tissues,” Ott explains, a process that involves stripping down a donor organ deemed ineligible for transplant to its bare scaffolding. Once the organ is stripped, it gets repopulated with the recipient patient’s cells, a process that greatly reduces the risk of organ rejection.

The general concept isn’t new; it’s essentially a graft, as for skin or bone, using live tissue to grow new tissue. Organ decellularization has been patented several times over by different inventors since the early 2000s. What differentiates Ott’s technique is that he uses an organ’s own vascular system for the decellularization and cell repopulation processes. Suddenly, it’s patentable.

With legal protection, Ott’s research has blossomed. “So far, we’ve done hearts, lungs, kidneys, and the pancreas,” he says. Research is underway to see if the same process can regenerate muscle and bowel tissue. If it can, perhaps he’ll file another patent. Until then, it’s anyone’s game.

LAND OF INVENTION

2,021 — Number of patent attorneys and agents in Massachusetts

7,079 — Number of patents issued to inventors in Massachusetts in 2014:

6,725 utility patents

337 design patents

15 reissued patents

2 plant patents

5th — Massachusetts’s ranking in most patents issued in 2014 – Bay State inventors accounted for 4.5% of patents issued to US residents in 2014

4.6% — Increase in patents issued to Massachusetts inventors from 2013 to 2014 (and an 81.3% increase from 2004 to 2014)

Land of Invention Sources: Us Patent and Trademark Office; Innovation Institute at the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative

BRIGHT IDEAS

Massachusetts inventors don’t take the summer off — these patents are just a sample of those issued this June or July to people, companies, and institutions in the Bay State.